Julia Farrell was born on 8th May 1877 in Dublin, daughter of a tailor named John Farrell and his wife Rosanna Reid. The couple had ten children, but Julia appears to have been one of only three to survive childhood. Her father John appears to have died some time before 1901, as the census that year finds Julia with her widowed mother and two siblings. Julia was working as a cashier. By 1911, Julia had moved to 4 Abercorn Terrace, Harold's Cross Road (later renumbered as 297 Harold's Cross Road). Here she was working as a 'Lady Clerk D.B.C.', although it is not clear what D.B.C. stood for. Living with her in the 1911 census was her mother's sister Maria, who must have returned from New York where she had been living since the 1880s.

Julia appears to have died in 1925. Certainly her brother William's obituary in 1926 refers to the fact that William's two sisters had both died recently, with the most likely death in 1925, albeit the age at death is eighteen years out.